A Comparative Study to Determine LDH Enzyme Levels in Serum Samples of Women with Breast Cancer and Women with Breast Cancer and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Cancer and diabetes both have been linked to aberrant lactate metabolism, and a high level of lactate formation is a prominent biological feature of both diseases. Among glycolysis enzymes, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) is an exciting possible pharmacological target for the cancer treatment. Drawing a comparison between diabetes and cancer, the importance of the excessive lactate generation in the diabetes-cancer interaction should not be overlooked. Therefore, this research was designed to determine the connection between lactic dehydrogenase enzyme (LDH) and the blood glucose in serum samples of women with breast cancer-associated to those with breast cancer and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

Seventy-five samples were categorized into three equal groups; group 1: Non-breast cancer or diabetes (control subjects C), group 2: patients suffering from breast cancer (BC)‎, and group 3: patients suffering from breast cancer (BC) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (BC and T2DM), in all samples, the amounts of the total LDH and glucose were measured.

The LDH level increased significantly (p≤ 0.001) in (BC and T2DM) group and (BC) group in comparison with the control group (C), respectively, and a significant increase in LDH‎ (p≤0.01) ‎ was obtained in (BC and T2DM) group versus the (BC) group. In addition, compared with the control group, the results indicated that the BC and BC and T2DM groups had the higher levels of glucose and LDH.

The LDH is a useful diagnostic marker for the metabolic syndrome and can be used to investigate the metabolic changes linked to breast cancer and diabetic complications. Many years ago, it was known that increased LDH is a poor predictor of cancer outcome. LDH may have a prognostic effect on breast cancer metastases, but this is unclear. Concerning the results of this investigation, we speculate that LDH could act as a predictor of breast cancer. Increasingly, the data suggest that diabetes mellitus is linked to an increased risk of cancer and a significant cause of death in cancer patients.